Do Betta Fish Sleep?

Like humans and other living creature, betta fish do sleep. Sleep is a MUST for survival. Fishes may have different sleeping habit like being diurnal or nocturnal. Fish who are active during the day and sleeps during night time are called diurnal while those who are active at night and sleeps most of the day time are commonly called as nocturnal. Like all other marine creatures, fishes needs some sleep, rest and stop moving.

When fish needs to rest out during the day, they will normally hide themselves between the leaves of plants planted in your aquarium. They normally go to rest when the light is out. You may see fish looks pale and appears to have their eyes wide open, they do this while sleeping so they can see any movement in the water. They are just being alert. Fishes who are called diurnal or active during day time will take a rest when the surrounding environment is dim or completely dark.

The fact is if you prolong long hours of lighting in the aquarium, it may stressed out your betta fish because it will lead an increase in temperature in the water of your tank. To avoid this type of hassle to your pet, you need to allocate a certain amount of time to get the light on or off. Different types of fish may follow different types of sleep rhythm, patterns & sleeping habit. Fish when sleeping appears to be motionless, slowing down any activity, floating in the water of just hover. That’s how you can spot that the fish is resting. For betta fish, when they sleep they appear to lay down in an L-shaped position while other appears dead when they are sleeping.

Other fish when sleeping requires a slight movement every few seconds just to avoid suffocation. Knowing these things are important as pet owner so you would understand what’s going on inside your aquarium.